NLRB v. Interurban Gas Corporation

• Decision Date: 27 May 1963
• Docket Number: No. 14961.,14961.
• Citation: 317 F.2d 724
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. INTERURBAN GAS CORPORATION, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

317 F.2d 724 (1963)

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner, v. INTERURBAN GAS CORPORATION, Respondent.

No. 14961.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

May 27, 1963.

Paul J. Spielberg, Washington, D. C., Stuart Rothman, General Counsel, Dominick L. Manoli, Associate General Counsel, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, Asst. General Counsel, Allison W. Brown, Jr., Attorney, N.L.R.B., Washington, D. C., on brief, for petitioner.

Leonard A. Keller, Detroit, Mich., James E. Frazer, Frazer & Popkin, Detroit, Mich., on brief, for respondent.

Before CECIL, Chief Judge, and MILLER and O'SULLIVAN, Circuit Judges.

O'SULLIVAN, Circuit Judge.

This is a petition by the Labor Board for enforcement of its order finding respondent, Interurban Gas Corporation, guilty of violating Section 8(a) (1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended (29 U.S.C.A. § 158(a) (1) and (3)) by discharging one of its employees, Donald Gillingham, because of his union activities. Respondent resists enforcement on the ground that there is not substantial evidence on the record as a whole to support the Board's findings and order.

Respondent is a corporation engaged in the sale and distribution of propane gas in southeastern Michigan. Gillingham, the discharged employee, worked as a driver-salesman for respondent from October, 1959, until his discharge on March 14, 1961. The testimony adduced before the trial examiner presents two conflicting views of the reasons for Gillingham's discharge. There was testimony that at an informal "grievance" meeting Gillingham had asked a supervisor, Ralph Wyatt, if he had any objections to a union, and that Wyatt had replied, "we are not anti-union around here." On another occasion, Gillingham, in the presence of Wyatt, discussed the matter of a union with another employee. Some two or three weeks after this latter event, Gillingham and two other employees, one Hodge and Gillingham's brother, filled out and signed union authorization cards. The three men then attempted to solicit the signature of a fourth employee, one Sloan. They discussed the matter at some length and, finally, Sloan said he was not interested but would think about it. Sloan then went into the company office. Gillingham went to the garage where he spoke to another employee about signing a union card, and, as he was leaving the garage, Wyatt approached him and said, "I'm going to have to let you go." There was no direct evidence that Sloan had told Wyatt that Gillingham was soliciting signatures for the union.

Finally, the General Counsel introduced the testimony of a waitress employed in a restaurant located on respondent's property. This witness, Flossie Begeman, who was also Hodge's mother-in-law, testified that after the discharge, Wyatt and another supervisor, one Milstead, came into the restaurant where she was employed. She testified that she was acquainted with both men and that Milstead told her, in connection with Gillingham's discharge, "they was trying to get the union in and Don (Gillingham) was the ringleader * * * that he (Milstead) wasn't going to have any union, that before he would let any of the employees tell him what to do or how to run the job for as many years as he had been into the business, that he'd fire the whole G---- D---- bunch and hire new men."

On the other hand, the respondent's proofs showed that Wyatt had no knowledge of Gillingham's union activities, that Gillingham was guilty of several unexplained...